Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Daily Herald looks at Joe Walsh’s support from the large south Asian community in IL’s 8thCD. Proud people, proudly American, and not likely to buy into the Democratic Party’s victim frame.

They won’t automatically vote for a Democrat and are going to be looking at values, character, and platform. Tammy Duckworth’s missed the outreach to this community, and I’m betting they give Joe Walsh the edge for victory.

Washington, DC – The Now or Never Political Action Committee (NON-PAC) announced today that it will be running broadcast television advertisements in the final days of the 2012 Election in Illinois’ 8th District to support the re-election of Republican Congressman Joe Walsh.

This last push of television advertising by Now or Never PAC comes as Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth, the former head of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, comes under scrutiny for her role in firing an Veterans Affairs employee after the woman filed a complaint against her supervisor.

“Duckworth wants the voters to ignore her own legal problems and mismanagement while she attempts to paint Congressman Walsh as a man he is not,” said Tyler Harber, spokesman for Now or Never PAC.

“Duckworth’s public indictment in the Whistleblower lawsuit has brought us back into this race. The people deserve to know what they will get if they elect Duckworth as their representative.”

Now or Never PAC has secured one-million dollars’ worth of air time on Chicogo-land broadcast television stations.

A confidential source, familiar with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), has informed illinoispaytoplay.com that Issa's committee is conducting a preliminary investigation into the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (USAO) pertaining to USAO leaks to the media that may represent an obstruction of justice.

The source further informs IP2P that the inquiry is focused on claims made within a recently-released book written by two Chicago Tribune reporters. The book states that the authors were given exclusive access to transcripts and tapes of government wiretaps in the case against Rod Blagojevich; and, that sensitive information had been previously leaked from the USAO to the Trib.

According to the book, one of the authors, John Chase, was chosen by his editors to notify Blagojevich that his phone calls were being monitored by federal agents. Chase completed that assignment the night before a scheduled meeting between Blagojevich and someone attempting to purchase a U.S. Senate seat for Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr. Four days later, FBI agents arrested the then sitting Governor of Illinois at his home.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Saviano posted the video from the forum online and blasted Sandoval for his behavior.

"Good ol' Marty got crazy and started ranting and raving in Spanish," Saviano told the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday. "

He tried to turn the crowd around on me and it backfired."
Sandoval offered no apologies, saying Saviano and his supporters are racists who had made "a farce of democracy," allegedly co-opting the community group that organized the forum.

"I was there as a Latino leader, and I wanted to ask questions of both candidates," Sandoval said. "I was not allowed to. I was very disrespected by them."

Sandoval said Saviano and his backers are "wolves in sheep clothing, portraying themselves as defenders of the Latino community."

Creepy Obama Kids are back. Check the video. You’d almost think it was SNL instead of legit.

The award-winning ad team that brought you “Got Milk?” and some of America’s most iconic ads have created a touching, memorable — and, yes, slightly terrifying — new spot that stars America’s children. Just in time for Election Day, it’s selling a striking message — about the country’s future.

Dana Perino’s tweeting Democrats calling in sick for their Sunday talk show gigs. Can you blame them. Ten Q’s via Weekly Standard the White House needs to answer.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD understands that it will take some time to "gather all the facts" about what happened on the ground in Benghazi. But presumably the White House already has all the facts about what happened that afternoon and evening in Washington—or, at least, in the White House. The president was, it appears, in the White House from the time the attack on the consulate in Benghazi began, at around 2:40 pm ET, until the end of combat at the annex, sometime after 9 p.m. ET. So it should be possible to answer these simple questions as to what the president did that afternoon and evening, and when he did it, simply by consulting White House meeting and phone records, and asking the president for his recollections.

1.) To whom did the president give the first of his "three very clear directives"—that is, "make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to?"

2.) How did he transmit this directive to the military and other agencies?

3.) During the time when Americans were under attack, did the president convene a formal or informal meeting of his national security council? Did the president go to the situation room?

4.) During this time, with which members of the national security team did the president speak directly?

5.) Did Obama speak by phone or teleconference with the combatant commanders who would have sent assistance to the men under attack?

6.) Did he speak with CIA director David Petraeus?

7.) Was the president made aware of the repeated requests for assistance from the men under attack? When and by whom?

8.) Did he issue any directives in response to these requests?

9.) Did the president refuse to authorize an armed drone strike on the attackers?

10.) Did the president refuse to authorize a AC-130 or MC-130 to enter Libyan airspace during the attack?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has asked the White House these questions, and awaits a response.

History will write Obama’s failure started when he accepted Rahm Emanual’s advice not to waste a crisis as an opportunity. Obama chose the opportunity to push a partisan Healthcare Reform without a single Republican vote, and ignored the real crisis of jobs and the economy. Obama’s never recovered and instead doubled done on the class war talk. It will cost Democrats the election and they’ll find the party in one heck of a crisis now. See what opportunities the Mayor of Chicago can make from that.

From the Herald’s endorsement

At a time when the economy was wracked, he chose instead to focus on health care reform. In doing so, his administration chose early on to fight with Congress rather than to work with it. He chose to force his landmark health care bill through Congress without a single Republican vote, significantly contributing to the bitter atmosphere of division in Washington.

His economic initiatives have been heavily bent toward the public sector, a big spending approach that has been aptly derided by Romney as “trickle-down government.” And however well intended his belief that the Bush tax cuts should be ended for upper-income brackets, his $250,000 benchmark has been remarkably low, as many two-income families and small business owners and others in the suburbs can attest.

More pointedly, we are disappointed in the tone of Obama’s relentless insinuations that wealthy Americans refuse to pay their fair share. That tone is divisive and damaging for the nation and for our economy. It creates villains and victims, and unfairly so.

Ten months ago this newspaper endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president. An overarching consideration was which of the party’s candidates could we see occupying the White House, and there was no question that Romney was qualified for the job.

Now, in the closing days of the general election campaign, the question is which of the two contenders deserves to be the next president of the United States.

Both President Barack Obama and Governor Romney are superbly qualified. Both are graduates of the Harvard University Law School who have distinguished themselves in government, in public service and in private life. Both are devoted husbands and fathers.

American voters are deeply divided about this race. The Register’s editorial board, as it should, had a vigorous debate over this endorsement. Our discussion repeatedly circled back to the nation’s single most important challenge: pulling the economy out of the doldrums, getting more Americans back in the workforce in meaningful jobs with promising futures, and getting the federal government on a track to balance the budget in a bipartisan manner that the country demands.

Which candidate could forge the compromises in Congress to achieve these goals? When the question is framed in those terms, Mitt Romney emerges the stronger candidate.

The former governor and business executive has a strong record of achievement in both the private and the public sectors. He was an accomplished governor in a liberal state. He founded and ran a successful business that turned around failing companies. He successfully managed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Romney has made rebuilding the economy his No. 1 campaign priority — and rightly so.

Steyn’s tale of two videos: one blaming Benghazi attack on a video, and the other the Obamagasm video.

Both videos — the one faking Obamagasm and the one faking a Benghazi pretext — exemplify the wretched shrinkage that befalls those unable to conceive of anything except in the most self-servingly political terms. Both, in different ways, exemplify why Obama and Biden are unfit for office. One video testifies to a horrible murderous lie at the heart of a head of state’s most solemn responsibility, the other to the glib shallow narcissism of a pop-culture presidency, right down to the numbing relentless peer pressure: C’mon, all the cool kids are doing it; why be the last hold-out?

If voting for Obama is like the first time you have sex, it’s very difficult to lose your virginity twice. A flailing, pitiful campaign has now adopted Queen Victoria’s supposed wedding advice to her daughter: “Lie back and think of England.” Lie back and think of America. And then get up and get dressed. Who wants to sleep with a $16 trillion broke loser twice?

Breaking news on Benghazi: the CIA spokesman, presumably at the direction of CIA director David Petraeus, has put out this statement: "No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate. ”

So who in the government did tell “anybody” not to help those in need? Someone decided not to send in military assets to help those Agency operators. Would the secretary of defense make such a decision on his own? No.

It would have been a presidential decision. There was presumably a rationale for such a decision. What was it? When and why—and based on whose counsel obtained in what meetings or conversations—did President Obama decide against sending in military assets to help the Americans in need?

Friday, October 26, 2012

And finally, FactCheck.org classified Obama's statement about mammograms at the second debate, which is the same statement he made on Leno this week, as untrue.

At the second presidential debate, President Obama said that women “rely on” Planned Parenthood for mammograms. Actually, mammograms are not performed at the clinics; Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses conduct breast exams and refer patients to other facilities for mammograms.Obama said: “When Governor Romney says that we should eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, there are millions of women all across the country who rely on Planned Parenthood for not just contraceptive care. They rely on it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings.”Obama used a similar line again on Oct. 18, telling a Manchester, N.H., crowd: “Governor Romney said he’d end funding for Planned Parenthood, despite all the work it does to provide women with mammograms and breast cancer screenings.”

Women can’t walk into a Planned Parenthood clinic and get a mammogram on the spot. The clinics don’t have mammography equipment.

Walter Russel-Mead with a must read column on the Ravitch Volker Report (pdf file) on Illinois’s financial disaster. Liberalism’s pursuit of Social Justice resulted in more poverty, ignorance (failed schools), and misery. It won’t easily be undone, but undone it will be; win or lose Obama. The Liberal / Progressive model unsustainable and collapsing before my eyes, outside my door, in my home state of Illinois.

But where liberals in America have the freest hand—in states like New York, California and Illinois—we see incontrovertible evidence that the policies they choose don’t have the consequences they predict. California by now should surely be an educational, environmental and social utopia. New York should be a wonder of glorious liberal governance. Illinois should be known far and wide as the state that works.

What’s interesting about the governance failures of these states is how comprehensive they are. Other than politicians, union officials and Wall Street investment banks, nobody really benefits from the choices Illinois has made. As the Volker-Ravitch report tells us, even the public sector unions, the architects of many of the state’s most destructive policies, are going to get shafted as a result of the bad policies they’ve supported. They’ve created a state that simply won’t be able to honor its promises to the workers the unions represent.

Walter Russel-Mead with a must read column on the Ravitch Volker Report (pdf file) on Illinois’s financial disaster. Liberalism’s pursuit of Social Justice resulted in more poverty, ignorance (failed schools), and misery. It won’t easily be undone, but undone it will be win or lose Obama. The Liberal / Progressive model unsustainable and collapsing before my eyes, outside my door, in my home state of Illinois.

But where liberals in America have the freest hand—in states like New York, California and Illinois—we see incontrovertible evidence that the policies they choose don’t have the consequences they predict. California by now should surely be an educational, environmental and social utopia. New York should be a wonder of glorious liberal governance. Illinois should be known far and wide as the state that works.

What’s interesting about the governance failures of these states is how comprehensive they are. Other than politicians, union officials and Wall Street investment banks, nobody really benefits from the choices Illinois has made. As the Volker-Ravitch report tells us, even the public sector unions, the architects of many of the state’s most destructive policies, are going to get shafted as a result of the bad policies they’ve supported. They’ve created a state that simply won’t be able to honor its promises to the workers the unions represent.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Prez seems awfully ignorant sometimes. As a footnote, I recall as an auditor with the DoD back in the 80s during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan that one US agency bought up just about every pack mule available in Tennessee. They had a use for them.

The U.S. special operations teams that led the American invasion in Afghanistan a decade ago did something that no American military had done since the last century: ride horses into combat. "It was like out of the Old Testament," says Lt. Col. Max Bowers, retired Green Beret, who commanded the three horseback teams. "You expected Cecil B. DeMille to be filming and Charlton Heston to walk out." Bowers spoke while sitting in the rural Kentucky studio of sculptor Douwe Blumberg, along with three of his former "horse soldiers." They, along with 30 fellow commandos on horseback, are the inspiration for a new monument that Blumberg is creating, dedicated to the entire U.S. special operations community.

RNC’s Rapid Responses’ sum of the pundits. I think Romney closed the deal last night.

ROMNEY PASSED THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TEST AND LEFT OBAMA LOOKING LIKE A CHALLENGER, NOT THE PRESIDENT

CNN's David Gergen: "I think Mitt Romney did something that was extremely important to his campaign tonight and that was he passed the Commander-In-Chief test." ( CNN, 10/22/12)

Fox News' Chris Wallace: Mitt Romney Looked Like The "President Protecting A Lead" While Obama Looked Like "The Challenger Trying Somewhat Desperately To Catch Up." FOX NEWS' CHRIS WALLACE: "I thought in the middle of the debate that if I'd been on a desert island for the last four years and I had just been parachuted into this debate, I would have thought the guy who turned out to be Mitt Romney was the president protecting the lead and that Barack Obama was the challenger trying somewhat desperately to catch up." (Fox News, 10/22/12)

CNBC's John Harwood: "You know, there was a -- when you contrast the demeanor of the two, Barack Obama looked more like the challenger who looked as if he was trying to make head way in the debate." (CNBC, 10/22/12)

Politico's John Harris: Obama's "Nitpicking, Overly Aggressive Strategy … Had The Effect Of Diminishing The President's Greatest Asset Which Is The Fact He Is Already Commander-In-Chief." POLITICO's JOHN HARRIS: "I felt that in a number of times when the president was making his point so aggressively, what was communicated in those exchanges was not strength and confidence but what was communicated was a kind of, sort of a nitpicking, overly aggressive strategy which had the effect of diminishing the president's greatest asset which is the fact he is already commander-in-chief."( CSPAN2, 10/22/12)

MSNBC's Chuck Todd: "POTUS is consistently trying to draw Romney into a more contentious debate. It's what challengers do who think they are behind." (Chuck Todd, Twitter Feed, 10/22/12)

Politico's James Hohmann: "So far Romney has not allowed Obama to get under his skin. He's staying calm, but POTUS keeps trying to make him lose his cool." (James Hohmann, Twitter Feed, 10/22/12)

NBC News' David Gregory: "The President is determined to pick a fight tonight; Romney determined to avoid it. What does that say about where each camp sees the race?" (David Gregory, Twitter Feed, 10/22/12)

NBC News' David Gregory: "Romney seemed more interested in coming across as a sober and careful commander in chief than a bellicose alt to President" (David Gregory, Twitter Feed, 10/22/12)

The New York Times' Nick Confessore: "Romney acting like a guy with a lead to protect, Obama like a guy trying to make up ground. Former feels more natural for this debate." (Nick Confessore, Twitter Feed, 10/22/12)

CNN's Gloria Borger: Obama Hasn't Cast A Vision For Four More Years. CNN's ANDERSON COOPER: "Did he set a vision for why he should have four more years?" GLORIA BORGER: "The president?" COOPER: "Yeah" BORGER: "Not any more than I think we've heard other than in the -- you know, in the summation." (CNN, 10/22/12)

MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "Romney was very good on the economy. Obama didn't seem to have a good comeback on the economy very well throughout tonight." (MSNBC, 10/22/12)

Illinois AFSCME Council 31’s pressure on Quinn so far has failed to force the governor to back down on either his layoff plans, with the exception of DCFS, or his pension reform plans. AFSCME’s campaign has also not galvanized solid, global opposition to Quinn. And the news media, which has now grown accustomed to the protests, may now be tuning out the union’s message.

If AFSCME sought to embarrass Quinn on Friday, it failed.

If AFSCME seeks more broadly to run Quinn out on a rail and win both news media attention and public sympathy for its demands through the protests, it may be failing on that score, too.

A U.S. ambassador is missing and his diplomatic team is desperately fighting off terrorist attacks. Our commander-in-chief and his national-security team in Washington are listening to the phone calls from the Americans under attack and watching real-time video from a drone circling overhead. Yet the U.S. military sends no aid. Why?

On September 11, at about 10 p.m. Libyan time (4 p.m. in Washington), Ambassador Chris Stevens and a small staff were inside our consulate in Benghazi when terrorists attacked. The consulate staff immediately contacted Washington and our embassy in Tripoli. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and numerous military headquarters monitored the entire battle in real time via the phone calls from Benghazi and video from a drone overhead.

Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened. The administration is being criticized for ignoring security needs before the attack and for falsely attributing the assault to a mob. But the most severe failure has gone unnoticed: namely, a failure to aid the living.

At about 10:30 p. m. on December 4, Chase “was chosen [by the paper’s top editors] to contact the governor’s press team and try to get some kind of comment,” prematurely spilling the beans on Fitzgerald’s ongoing criminal investigation to its main target. Chase’s story, “Feds Taped Blagojevich,” which ran in the Tribune the following day, noted that Blagojevich aide John Wyma had been cooperating with authorities and that the federal probe had expanded to include the Senate seat. Four days later, the 40th governor of Illinois was arrested at his Chicago bungalow before actually consummating the deal.

Coen and Chase readily admit that their newspaper had been secretly cooperating with Fitzgerald’s office for months by not publishing certain information, and “was aware of the possible arrest date.” But such sensitive information could only have come from one source: the government. So why did the Tribune suddenly stop cooperating and tip off Blagojevich that he was being wiretapped days before his planned arrest? Incredulous bloggers, particularly those at Illinoispaytoplay.com, likened it to spending months watching a suspected drug dealer and then arresting him before he actually hands over the contraband and pockets the cash.

David Richter, the president of Hill International (HIL), a mid-sized outfit that manages construction projects, was speaking last year at a private meeting with investors when he was asked about the recent success of his newest subsidiary, HillStone International.

How was it that HillStone, a newcomer in the business of home building, landed a massive and potentially lucrative contract to build 100,000 homes in war-torn Iraq?

Richter didn’t mince words. It really helps, he said, to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner,” according to a person who was present.

The “brother” Richter was referring to during the meeting is James Biden, the younger brother of Vice President Joe Biden.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Reminds me of when LBJ went over the target list for bombing North Vietnam. No business for a President to get down into those tactics. I imagine these Terror Tuesday's will be just about as effective for Obama. DWS clueless in the video below. More over at The Guardian from Glenn Greenwald. Hope this comes up in Monday Night's debate.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

A repost from September prompted by the Joe Walsh and Tammy Duckworth races turn to abortion as focal issue. Awfully hard to find Republicans as extreme when Eleanor Clift notes below Coke Roberts even found the Democratic convention over the top in terms of abortion.

Democrats voiced their unequivocal support for abortion rights at the party’s convention in Charlotte, a sharp departure from two decades of modulating their views on the issue with the phrase “safe, legal, and rare.”

The word “rare” was sliced out of the party platform as Democrats embraced “safe and legal” abortion as an integral part of women’s health, drawing a bright line separating them from Republicans, who hardened their anti-abortion rights stance at their Tampa convention.

Female commentators who normally identify with the Democrats, like Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson and The Washington Post’s Melinda Henneberger, found the convention’s unrelenting focus on abortion rights off-putting for a party that claims a big tent. Cokie Roberts, appearing on ABC’s This Week, called the convention “over the top in terms of abortion…Every single speaker talked about abortion, and you know, at some point, you start to alienate people. Thirty percent of Democrats are pro-life.”

William A. Galston, an aide to President Bill Clinton who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said he’s “never seen a less presidential demeanor from a national candidate.” Biden has twice run for president and has not ruled out a third attempt in 2016.

H/T Illinois Review I've seen Walsh asked his stand on abortion in Town Halls and his consistently responded he's pro-life, and this election is nothing to do with abortion. America's in an economic and fiscal crisis and at the moment those issues far outweigh anything Congress can do on abortion. He's right.

RNC Research on Obama's lack of plan. The Prez would have been helped immensely had he had some Legislative agenda sitting in Congress that he could have referenced.

LAST NIGHT WAS OBAMA'S CHANCE TO FINALLY LAY OUT HIS PLANS FOR A SECOND TERM

The Washington Post's Dan Balz: If Obama Has "Something Important To Say About A Second Term, Tuesday Night Affords Him The Opportunity To Say It." "He has been vague about this throughout the campaign, preferring to focus on criticisms of Romney and defense of his first-term achievements. If he has something important to say about a second term, Tuesday night affords him the opportunity to say it." (Dan Balz, "Obama, Romney Face A Truly Crucial Week,"The Washington Post,10/13/12)

"There's One Other Weakness In Obama's Message: The Question Of What His Second-Term Agenda Actually Is." (Dan Balz, "Obama, Romney Face A Truly Crucial Week," The Washington Post, 10/13/12)

VOTERS WALKED AWAY KNOWING JUST AS MUCH AS THEY DID WALKING INTO THE DEBATE

TIME's Mark Halperin: "The President Did Not Lay Out A Second Term Agenda." MARK HALPERIN:"I just want to say one thing we haven't brought up yet but it's incredibly important. The President did not lay out a second term agenda. And if there's an undercurrent here, that could really hurt him, not in the room, because it wasn't evident, it was absent. He didn't lay out a second term agenda any more than he did in the first debate. And that is where he is the weakest. And he didn't address it, I thought at all." (MSNBC's "Morning Joe," 10/17/12)

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough: Obama "Has Laid Out No Plan For The Next Four Years. No Plan." MSNBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH: "Looking for a way forward, you want to know what's going to be different over the next four years and you just didn't get that from Barack Obama. Now you don't get that form Mitt Romney either but Barack Obama's the guy that's asking to be hired again. And I just gotta see, gotta think after the second debate this President has laid out no plan for the next four years. No plan. That's gotta be devastating in some voters' eyes." (MSNBC's "Morning Joe," 10/17/12)

NBC News' David Gregory: Obama Was "A Little Light On His Vision For The Future." "I think liberals can breathe a sigh of relief. It's not curtains for the President. He showed up and showed up big tonight. He was more aggressive; he had a lot of fight in him. A little light on his vision for the future, Brian." (Jonathan Sanger and M. Alex Johnson, "First Take: Obama, Romney 'Throw Down' On Long Island," NBC News, 10/17/12)

CNN's John King: "I've Been TravelingThe Last Few Weeks, This Is What People Say, I Want To Vote For Him, But He Hasn't Told Me What He's Going To Do." CNN's JOHN KING:"If people think you have a plan, likability comes into play. The president has still left a whole lot of people, as I've been traveling the last few weeks, this is what people say, I want to vote for him, but he hasn't told me what he's going to do." (CNN's "Debate Night In America, 10/16/12)

King: "Moms Still Want To See The President Make A Case For The Second Term." CNN's JOHN KING: "Romney scored points for having a five-point plan. Moms still want to see the president make a case for the second term." (CNN's "Debate Night In America, 10/16/12)

The New York Times' Tom Friedman:Obama's Weakness Is The Question Of "How Will The Next Four Years Really Be Different?" TOM FRIEDMAN:"I continue to believe Obama has a weakness when it comes to the question of will the next four years really be different? Do you have a plan that excites you and me to get out of my chair and say that's the guy, that's it, that's the person I want to follow now. He has not closed that deal." (MSNBC's "Morning Joe," 10/17/12)

The New York Times' Peter Baker: "Nor did he offer an extensive articulation of what his forward-looking agenda would be for a second term beyond, essentially, arguing that electing his opponent would be moving back to failed policies of the past." (Peter Baker, "For The President, Punch, Punch, Another Punch,"The New York Times, 10/17/12)

TIME's Joe Klein: "Obama's Greatest Weakness Is That His Proposals For The Future Are Nonexistent." (Joe Klein, "The Hofstra Debate: No Clear Winner," TIME's Swampland, 10/16/12)

Tampa Bay Times' Adam Smith: "The President Did Little To Lay Out An Agenda For A Second Term." (Adam C. Smith, "Second Debate Brings Out Assertive Obama, Tough Romney," Tampa Bay Times, 10/17/12)

Politico'sBen White: "Obama Was Far Less Effective In Making An Affirmative Case For A Second Term" And Decided To Pursue A "Disqualification Effort Against Romney Rather Than Making A Strong Pitch For A Second Term Vision.""But Obama was far less effective in making an affirmative case for a second term, saying only that he wanted to create more manufacturing jobs and reduce the debt and deficit and keep investing in alternative energy sources. Romney had his strongest moments ripping up Obama's first term record, citing the persistently high jobless rate, the rising debt and the lack of action on Social Security, Medicare and immigration reform. Obama mainly tried to refresh his campaign's initial - and largely successful - disqualification effort against Romney rather than making a strong pitch for a second term vision."(Ben White, "Debate A Bare-Knuckle Brawl," Politico's Morning Money, 10/17/12)

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Headline: "A President Without A Plan" ("A President Without A Plan," The Wall Street Journal, 10/17/12)

The Wall Street Journal Editorial: "The Question We Kept Asking As The Evening Wore On, However, Is What Does He Want To Do For The Next Four Years?" ("A President Without A Plan," The Wall Street Journal, 10/17/12)

The Wall Street Journal On Obama's Plans For The Next Four Years: "He Wants To Invest In 'Solar And Wind And Biofuels, Energy-Efficient Cars,' Which Probably Means More Solyndras And A123s (See Nearby)." "He wants to invest in 'solar and wind and biofuels, energy-efficient cars,' which probably means more Solyndras and A123s (see nearby). He wants to raise taxes on the rich-that's one thing he's really passionate about. Oh, and he does want to pass the immigration reform he said he'd propose four years ago but never did propose in his first two years when his party controlled Congress and he might have passed it. But otherwise, what's his case for four more years? Judging by Tuesday's debate, the President's argument for re-election is basically this: He's not as awful as Mitt Romney. Mr. Obama spent most of his time attacking either Mr. Romney himself (he invests in Chinese companies), his tax plan as a favor for the rich ('that's been his history') or this or that statement he has made over the last year ('the 47%,' which Mr. Obama saved for the closing word of the entire debate)." (Editorial, "A President Without A Plan," The Wall Street Journal, 10/17/12)

The Wall Street Journal:" Mr. Romney Will Have A Chance To Do Better On Foreign Policy Next Week, But Mr. Obama Seems Out Of Ammunition For The Next Four Years." (Editorial, "A President Without A Plan," The Wall Street Journal, 10/17/12)

Former Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY): "You Didn't Leave Last Night With A Real Tangible Sense Of What The Second Term Agenda Is Going To Be.""We shouldn't be blind to what continues to be the soft underbelly of the president's campaign, which is that when all is said and done, you didn't leave last night with a real tangible sense of what the second term agenda is going to be." (Current TV's "Full Court Press," 10/17/12)

We’re in dire need of hearings to understand the Administration’s strategy in Afghanistan. Biden was clearly out-to-lunch in those debates.

Despite statements by Vice President Joe Biden, the State Department is about to begin formal negotiations over the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, a top State Department official said Tuesday.

Last week, U.S. and Afghan negotiators met in Kabul to talk about the Bilateral Security Agreement that will govern the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, when President Barack Obama said the combat mission in Afghanistan will end and the U.S. will complete the transition of the entire country to Afghan government control.

Also last week, Biden told Americans during his Oct. 11 debate with Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan that U.S. troops were leaving Afghanistan by 2014.

"We are leaving in 2014, period, and in the process, we're going to be saving over the next 10 years another $800 billion," Biden said. "We've been in this war for over a decade. The primary objective is almost completed. Now all we're doing is putting the Kabul government in a position to be able to maintain their own security. It's their responsibility, not America's

The Pool Reporter asks the Prez if the SecState's to blame. No response back... next question ought to be who told Rice to do five Sunday Morning talk shows telling Americans the murders were a spontaneous response to a movie.

This is a devastating ad IMO. Recall the comments from Michael Medved's panel,

I watched the proceedings on a big screen together with 250 listeners from the Seattle flagship station for my radio show. In the discussion afterward, one of the women present said that Biden made her cringe by reminding her precisely of her abusive ex-husband. Another 23-year-old came up to me afterward and emphatically agreed, saying she had just left her own abusive relationship and that watching Biden’s antics gave her the creeps in the same way that her former boyfriend’s dismissive snickering always made her feel inadequate.

On average, the Biblical world sees a startling new discovery of allegedly cosmic significance every four or five years. Most recently, we had Jesus's Wife, with the Gospel of Judas not long before that, and no great powers of prophecy are needed to tell that other similar finds will shortly be upon us.

In themselves, the finds are usually interesting (if they happen to be authentic), but where the media always go wrong in reporting them is in vastly exaggerating just how novel and ground-breaking they are.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

James Warren on what’s turning out to be Madigan’s remap fiasco. Warren omits Gov Pat Quinn’s drag on the ticket. Illinois went for the tax hike solution and voters have the comparisons with Walker’s Wisconsin and Mitch Daniel’s Indiana for successful alternatives.

The fact that Walsh is very much alive heading into the final weeks of the campaign suggests a possible Election Day stunner on President Obama’s home turf: Despite the president’s own assured victory in Illinois, more Republican congressmen may survive than ever imagined after Democrats vividly shafted the GOP in redrawing congressional districts.

Logan's speech to Chicago's Better Government Association on Afghanistan and Taliban. A little covered speech that deserved more attention. Via RCP

Logan gave a blistering speech in Chicago this past week that ripped the administration for the way it has handled the war in Afghanistan and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya.
"I chose this subject because, one, I can't stand that there is a major lie being propagated," Logan said about the administration touting the weakening of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Speaking about Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed, Logan says she hopes the U.S. will "exact revenge and let the world know that the United States will not be attacked on its own soil. That its ambassadors will not be murdered, and that the United States will not stand by and do nothing about it."

Tom Serafin invokes God’s Blessings as explanation for Illinois Voters comfort with crooks, boodlers, and the other cast of characters we send to Springfield and Washington.

That’s because in Chicago, even an indictment doesn’t automatically mean the end to a career. Case in point is state Rep. Derrick Smith, a West Side Democrat who was charged with taking a $7,000 bribe and won the Democratic primary with 77 percent of the vote.

Smith was expelled from the Illinois chamber but remains on the ballot. If he wins re-election, the Illinois House of Representatives will need to find different grounds on which to expel him.

Jackson is “blessed with a constituency that overlooks all of his absences,” Serafin said. “I don’t think he’s in jeopardy of not being re-elected, even if something more serious came down the pike right before the election.”

Friday, October 12, 2012

Ouch, Kos slams Quinn and sets him up for the blame for something that wasn't supposed to happen.H/T Western Illinois over at Capital Fax•IL-08(Likely D to Lean D): The fact that freshman GOP Rep. Joe Walsh isn't automatic driftwood is a sign of just how distant a hope a Democratic House majority is. Tammy Duckworth has raised exceptional sums, and she's still favored. But the polling hasn't shown a slam dunk for her, and a fortune has been spent against her by conservative third-party groups who just refuse to give up on Walsh. But Barack Obama's just not doing as well in his home state as he did four years ago, and Gov. Pat Quinn is in the running for the most unpopular governor in the nation. All this is creating a drag on Illinois Democrats, and even Duckworth's not immune.

Lt. Colonel Andrew Wood Testified Before The House Oversight
Committee That Al Qaeda Is “More Established Than We Are” In Libya. REPRESENTATIVE
DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH): “Does anybody else here know how many shoulder to
air missiles that can shoot down civilian airliners are still loose in Libya?
Does anyone know?” LIEUTENANT COLONEL ANDREW WOOD: “The figures that we
were provided were fluid, but the rough approximation was between ten and
20,000.” REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (R-CA): “The gentleman's time has
expired. Did you want them to answer anything in response to al queda
growth? If anyone has an answer on that one, they can answer and then
we’ll go on.” KUCINICH: “Is Al Qaeda more or less established in Libya
since our involvement?” WOOD: “Yes, sir their presence grows every day,
they are certainly more established than we are.” (House Oversight And
Government Reform Committee, Hearing, 10/10/12)

State
Department: Budget Had Nothing To Do With Security Decisions At Benghazi

State Department Official Charlene Lamb
Testified Before The House Oversight Committee That Budget Cuts Had Nothing To
Do With Security Decisions In Benghazi. REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA): “It has
been suggested the budget cuts are responsible for lack of security in
Benghazi, and I’d like to ask Ms. Lamb, you made this decision personally, was
there any budget consideration and lack of budget that led you not to increase
the number of people in the security force there?” STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS CHARLENE LAMB: “No, sir.”(U.S.
House Of Representatives, Oversight And Government Reform Committee, Hearing,
10/10/12)

Eric Nordstrom, Former Regional Security Officer At The U.S.
Embassy In Libya, Testified Before The House Oversight Committee That The Obama
Administration Did Not Have A Plan In Libya, Only “A Hope That Everything Would
Get Better.” REGIONAL SECURITY OFFICER ERIC NORDSTROM: “Absolutely. That
was one of the tensions that we always had. We obviously understood the need to
engage across a wide spectrum of programs. That was one of the main reasons we
wanted that security resources, so that we could deploy sufficient resources to
respond when there was a problem. There was not open warfare at all times in
Libya. Generally speaking, we saw a lot of improvements. It was fairly
permissive during the daytime. Things started to heat up after hours. We had
sort of a joke, I saw that it was in the newspaper, but we had a saying that it
was, in Libya, you would be fine until you’re not. Our problem was if someone
found themselves in an issue, we had three officers specifically trapped in the
Prime Minister's building when it was stormed by some fighters protesting a pay
issue. Were we going to have sufficient people who could respond and navigate
their way in and extricate those people? With time and with less resources, we
were not going to have that. One of the frustrating things that I found early
on and as I mentioned in my testimony, I was extremely pleased with the planning
to get us into Libya. The frustrating thing that I found is once the first
teams and the first TDY-ers started to expire at 60 days, there was a complete
and total absence of planning that I saw in terms of what we were supposed to
do from that point on. So when I requested resources, when I requested assets,
instead of supporting those assets, I was criticized. And somehow it was my
responsibility to come up with a plan on the ground and not the responsibility
for DS. I raised that specific point in a meeting with the DS director in
March, that 60 days there was no plan. And it was hope that everything would
get better.” (House Oversight And Government Reform Committee, Hearing,
10/10/12)

CNN's
Gloria Borger: "It was condescending at times, to Paul Ryan and I think I
could've done with a lot less eye rolling and chuckling on the part of Joe
Biden." (CNN's "Inside The Spin Room," 10/11/12)

On the tomb of the nineteenth century Church historian Bishop Mandel Creighton are inscribed the words: ‘He tried to write true history.’

Like the bishop – who was a member of my own college at Oxford – I believe that there is such a thing as ‘true history’.

What happened in the past is unalterable and definite. To uncover it – or as much of it as possible – the historian has several tools, among them chronology, documentation, memoirs, and the vast apparatus of scholarly work in which others have delved and laboured in the same vineyard.